Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
It’s coming round to the time of equinoctial balance. In the north, this means spring. The Sap Moon is waxing and the maples are starting to show some signs of waking. Where I live it is still white and cold, but there are rumors of daffodils not far south and down by the coast. I… Continue reading Balance
March 11th is Penny Loaf Day, though it is also traditional to set the observance to the Sunday closest to 11 March. This is an obscure holiday that I’d like to revive. Because first of all, it involves bread (so, duh, of course!), and second it celebrates generosity that has endured for nearly four centuries.… Continue reading Penny Loaf Day
It's been an ugly week. So here are some goofy poems to make you smile. Hopefully... Robin L'Green Robin L’Green, that blithesome thief, with arrow and bow he prowled every fief. Took rags from paupers and rings from the rich. Gave each to the other — a convivial switch. Took naught for himself, left naught… Continue reading Divertissement
There is a long and perhaps self-evident entanglement between unlimited property rights and violence. Violence is, of course, necessary to the right to destroy or kill, and private property — full ownership — will brook not even these extreme limits. In fact, to exercise and maintain unlimited property rights is to systematically employ death and… Continue reading The Violence of Property
The Sentence Louise Erdrich Harper, 2021 Louise Erdrich’s latest novel is a work of nested stories and messages, a compound sentence with braided subordinate clauses and ellipses and declamations in em dashes. It can be read as a love letter to the book world — and, indeed, it is hard to close the book and… Continue reading The Sentence: Review
Today, Ash Wednesday, is the beginning of the spring fast, Lent. The name lent derives from an Old English word meaning “spring season”. Other languages name this 40-day period before Easter with words that derive from “fasting”. We can see from these names that Lent is not merely a season of preparation for the Christian… Continue reading Lenten Fast for the Planet
Today is Town Meeting day in Vermont. For the uninitiated, this is the day when Vermonters pack themselves into school gyms and various meeting halls to vote on town governance for the upcoming year. Officials are elected. Laws are debated and passed. Budgets are assigned. If there are complaints or disturbances, these are given voice… Continue reading Participatory Democracy
About this time of year the maple trees around New England become festooned in bright tubing. It isn’t as romantic as the old-timey, hanging-bucket pictures on all the syrup bottles, but it’s much easier to maintain and keep clean. The trees are tapped (meaning a small hole is drilled down to the inner bark) and… Continue reading Sugar Season!
eleven degrees and snowing furiously the world is monochrome and hushed yet through the center there are guns and tears and red ruptures through winter airs there are last sighs and new strains of death and melting ice under bereft bears i try to hold it all but it slides through preoccupied fingers tea takes… Continue reading 25 february 2022
In response to "Conservative, Not Racist", I received a wonderful email from Kent Craig of Queensland, Australia, describing his continuing deep dives into received "wisdom" and what he's brought up to the surface in that process. He kindly gave me permission to share. I think it clearly shows that one doesn't have to have a… Continue reading A Happy Correspondence
By My Solitary Hearth 